"The hands of reality claws out my hopes,
Leaving me awake with nightmares so broke."
♤

Her heart pounded as she stared at the unfinished plate, unfazed. Her tight fists clenching inside her palm and ceasing the blood flow. Eyes suddenly turned empty as she covers the plate with another plate. Grasping on the wooden table, she stood up. Jaw tight as she moseyed out of the kitchen.

The preamble basked upon her, her dark brown pupil shining like the honey pool as she stepped out of the house with nothing but her blank mind. She needed a way clear her blank mind. Leaving the door wide open, she walked onto the hustle bustle of the street, ignoring the pedestrian, travellers, buyers.

Everyone busy in their own world and she walked to figure out her own world. She wanted to be feel, like she felt things before. Like how her decisions haunted her, like the fencing wire around her arms. Like how, she almost died opening up with people, like how, she felt on the edge of a cliff, where her own decision pushed her into the depths of her haywire thoughts. Like how she felt her heart stopping at the mention of facing the world. But, the irony of things is that, what she hated before is now what she begged for. She begged to be sat on the edge for a while, she begged to live in fear; now that no invisible walls caged her thoughts. She begged for fear to make home inside her. But, nothing was their to be felt anymore. Not even the fear. So, she felt the rage. Rage coiling around her fingers, resting on the tips of her fingers, for the things she touches to be destroyed.

"Layla" a whisper called her and the people around her buzzed away. It turned silent. So silent, that it hurt her to walk there.

"Listen, to me Layla." Her eyes popped out wide as she heard her mind speaking. She never heard it before. The voice was so close to her as if there was someone behind her ear. Tricking her.

Ignoring the whisper of voice she turned to another. Long gone the sun, leaving the moon admiring the people.

She doesn't know where she was walking. But, it seemed like she was walking a long way. Faking away the thought of finding a destination.
She was beginning to be cruel on herself but when she isn't. Her eyes narrowed as she walked down the lane, long forgotten the flowing bucket of grief. The rage did the great work in making forget her own grief.

Grief. The grief rolled beneath her eyes sticking on the eyelids, but hues of dark rage caressed over her eyes, turning her dark brown eyes into pitch black. Her face betrayed no emotions as she stepped hard on the concrete road.

Even the zephyr couldn't caress away her rage.

The heavy weigh toned down her hard steps into slow motion. And she walked with no aim. In her mind.

Sarfraz, her one of the colleague from the content department saw her and did a double take to see if she is really there.

The silence of the ascending night pricked onto her skin. It reminded her that the insides if her never calmed down even if the world stopped talking.

Crossing the roads, he jogged near her. A can hanging in his grip.

"Hey Layla." His green pupil, shining under the yellow pole light.

She grimaced on her thought of coming out.

Waving him, she turned the other way clearly trying to ignore. Sarfaraz was a little too thick headed, to acknowledge the gesture.

"It's a little late for a lady like you to roam out here, in the dark." Emptying the contents in his mouth, he crushed it and threw it in the bin.

Shoving his hands in the pockets, he gestured at the sky to in support of his words.

Tilting her head she stared ahead of them, speaking the words which left him clearly dumbfounded.

"And it's early for gentlemen like you to roam out in the deserted night. Right?"

He opened his mouth like a fish and closed them again. Layla felt the urge to slap him when he chewed his lips, the small gesture triggered her and she felt cringe-ness rising upto her throat.

"It's just dangerous for girls in the night, to roam out like that, like alone." Embarrassment crawled near him sticking on his leg as he justified his point.

"Since when does days and nights use genders as a symbol? Last time I checked, it wasn't written anywhere." Sarcasm dripped from her voice as she ignored his towering body over hers. He wasn't close to her, but staying near him just boiled her blood.

He was left speechless. No words formed in his throat to be spoken and tongue tied down every word he tried to let out.

Clearing his throat, he padded away back to the general store. His tight hand hanging in the air, as he tried to let her know about him going away.

Certain emotions swayed in his eyes as he saw her standing still and her eyes empty but lost in something. Shaking his head he went inside of the store continuing his shopping.

A heavy breath made her chest heave up and down.

A deep sense of longing weighed heavy in her guts, she longed for something which never belonged to her; love. Not in a motherly way or fatherly. Not also in way of brothers and sisters. She longed for love of a lover. Whose touch would ignite her soul and crumble her thoughts, shattering them into the pieces. A lover who would cradle her in his arms, a lover who will burn the world for her in the night and will cuddle her in the day.

Lost in the longing, she never knew when someone passed by her side. His shoulder jerking her still one, yanking her back to the reality where she was alone.

TBC...........